So a couple years ago I fell off my bike and broke the fall with my face. It was pretty bad. Not God awful but it hurt a lot and there was a lot of swelling. I ate some of a tooth.

Anyway ... ever since then I've been kinda uneasy on my bike ... even after getting a bike that actually fits me. But the other day, I hit a break in the road and jumped -- JUMPED -- from my bike! I landed on my feet, instead of my face, this time. It was awesome. I'm pretty sure it looked something like this:

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o215/ephemeralife/bike.jpg

but with me instead of Kanye West. awesome.

Ya, ok, I have a weanie bike story. Anyone else have a bike-breaking or bike-rocking story to share???

Meth Addicts Demand Government Address Nation's Growing Spider Menace

So, this should be the first of many blogs on the stupid/funny/sad/thought-provoking stuff that happens during my job as an education reporter.

I was doing a story about this school district administrator who went to Los Angeles with her friend and got to be a contestant on The Price is Right. She ended up winning a chandelier and a gi-normous fridge, so I went out to her house to see these prizes.

The woman has this beautiful, sweet dog (I can't remember the dog's name) but it looked like a bigger version of a poodle with less fur, maybe some sort of Spaniel.

So the dog is being all cute and loving, and I reach down to pet her and the woman kind of "eeps" and scurries into the kitchen to get some paper towels. I kind of follow her into the living room, with the dog behind me. As the woman is walking back to the door, I start to pet the dog again, but the dog -- as I'm petting it -- assumes the squat position and pees on the living room rug.

I look to the woman in surprise only to realize that she is cleaning up the pee from the earlier petting that I did not notice. She then politely, although somewhat impatiently, asks me to stop petting her dog. I guess she tends to get excited with visitors, like, pee-yourself excited. Normally when they greet visitors, the woman said she meets them in the lawn; a much more appropriate place for the pee.

Cute dog, though.

Okay, so this super-cool picture is the product of one of the Denton Record-Chronicle's fine photographers, Gary Payne. (He's the MySpace friend that has a jockey on his back. I like making meowing sounds at him, in honor of SpongeBob Squarepants' pet snail, Gary.)

Anyway, the underlying photo is my work picture, which graces my awesome press pass. For some reason, Gary decided that our city reporter, Lowell, needed a Lucha Libre mask and a professional wrestling name (which anyone can obtain at http://www.kujosoft.com/wng/wng.php). I'm not sure which came first, the mask or the name, but shortly thereafter (after I had named and mocked the name of nearly everyone in the newsroom), Gary generously spent a good 15 minutes finding me a mask and creating a picture to accompany my alter-pro-wrestling-persona, Sheik Warrior.

Mild-mannered Sarah will eventually return. After I kick some ass.

Sometimes I think I would do anything to erase the memory of the moment my ex broke my life into a million pieces. Anything not to have him fall off the pedestal I put him on, not to prove to me how blind I am, not to darken the world in which I had put so much naive trust.

But if he hadn't. We might still be in a deceitful relationship built on what I thought was good and what he was afraid to let go of. I might have never been forced to face the open wounds I liked to lick and pretend were better. Maybe he gained something out of it too. At least I got prescription pills.

I don't think I would want our memories though. If I could erase that one moment of pure disappointment, disillusion, hatred and contempt, I would want to erase it all. Make sure I never remembered how I fooled myself into loving him. Lest it happen again.

But the clouds he left me are breaking. And I am collecting the shattered pieces. Some have fallen in the cracks and will not be retrieved. I will create new pieces to fit in their place. Or maybe I'll leave open spots for air, or sunshine, or rain.

There will be no pedestal. Not for me. Not for them.

Everybody's got to learn sometime.

 From: WG

 To: the rest of us

 Subject: Holy crap Part 2

 Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 04:54:32 +0000

OK, I wasn't depressed until about 2 seconds ago when I read my email from EB telling me that OP (as in, "I'm a good news reporter, I only report for the glory of God almighty") is the new city editor. I repeat, OP is the new city editor. Is there any justice in life? I would really like to wax philosophical and be all witty with funny things to say about this, but I am truly dumbfounded at the moment. I guess it's evidence to us all that the insanity at KDH continues.

----Original Message-----

From: MP

Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 9:54 AM

To: ER

Cc: the rest of us

Subject: RE: The Holy Crap trilogy

Best line of the day award goes to E for "jerry the janitor snags the ME spot."